The crisp air of Autumn

The last few days have been colder, windy and wet. Our first minor freeze happened last night. This morning the sky is clear and the air is nippy.

I LOVE AUTUMN!

Autumn is my favorite season. I love the slant of the light, the crisp air, and the colors. I don't live in a place with spectacular fall color like you see in New England. We have a lot of Siberian Elm trees here. They're pretty much of a nuisance as they tend to "volunteer" in some very inconvenient places. There is a place near here where the trees line the creek bank. When the trees put on their brilliant yellow coats it really is breathtaking.

Today is a home day. I love home days, especially during Autumn. I actually feel like I am accomplishing something when I have a home day. I've spent time tending to chickens and goats and saving some seeds for next years garden. Also, laundry, dishes, mopping, etc. I prefer the first set of tasks over the second but all are necessary to things running decently around here.

This year I planted a very modest garden here at home. I was hesitant to plant too much. We've been trying to hold on to our house and when planting season was here we still had no answers and a looming sale date that kept getting moved a month at a time. I planted two types of green beans, yellow straight neck and zuchinni squash, and two types of cucumbers. We had a reasonable amount of green beans, and a few cucumbers. The squash bugs were a plague of biblical proportion here this year. They decimated the squashes and then moved on to the cucumbers. I decided to save seed this year if I could. I preferred the Blue Lake beans over the Purple Podded Pole beans. I'm going to save seed from both and just give the Purple Podded Pole seeds away. They are pretty but not my favorite for flavor. My dear friend, Ivy, shared several things from her always fabulous garden. The Moon and Stars Watermelon was spectacular! It is an open pollinated variety so I saved a BUNCH of seed. I will give a lot of it as gifts to family and friends so that they can enjoy those lovely melons next year.

At our bookstore I planted the north window bed in lettuces, chards, carrots, beets and scallions. Behind the store I planted some butternut squash. A few days ago I harvested six butternut and although I hoped for more I am happy to have some decently sized ones. I make Butternut Squash Soup for our Halloween party and I'm thrilled that this year I can claim growing the squash for it. Yesterday I pulled all the scallions and a good amount of little carrots. I have learned that the scallions need to be in a sunnier spot next year.

I'm in the mood to bake but the oven needs the element replaced. Maybe my mother-in-law will let me use her oven if I leave some goodies in return. Couldn't hurt to ask!